Hockey World Cup 2023: Win it to be in it!

A belowpar show against debutants Wales denying them a direct quarterfinal berth hosts India would look to address their attacking woes against a plucky New Zealand for a place in the Last 8 stage of the FIH Menrsquos Hockey World Cup here on SundayIndia needed to beat Walesmdasheight places below them in world rankingsmdashby a margin of eight goals to top Pool lsquoDrsquo and qualify directly for the quarterfinals but the home side could only notch up a 42 win on Thursday as the forwards lacked in finishingIndia are now up against New Zealand in the mustwin crossover match The Black Sticks finished third in Pool lsquoCrsquo with a win and two lossesCurrently ranked 12th in the world as against Indiarsquos sixth position New Zealandmdashwho have never reached the semifinalsmdashhave also not done anything extraordinary in the tournament and the home side definitely would start as favourites in front of an expected jampacked Kalinga StadiumBig setback for IndiaIndiarsquos key midfielder Hardik Singh has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament after he failed to recover from his hamstring injury sustained in the match against England on January 15Hardikrsquos absence will be a big setback for India as they have been struggling in the attacking department and considering the fact that they are expected to runinto defending champions Belgium in the quarterfinals if they beat New ZealandHardik who scored a brilliant solo goal in Indiarsquos 20 win over Spain in the opening match will be replaced by alternate player Raj Kumar Pal He did not play against WalesAgainst a Wales team whom England and Spain had beaten 50 and 51 the Indians struggled to find goals as the forwards put up a poor showThe Indians simply failed to get their strategy right against Wales who defended in numbers inside their own circleThe Indian defence which had a clean sheet till then conceded two goals against Wales who are ranked 14th in the worldCaptain Harmanpreet Singh scored his and the teamrsquos first goal from penalty corners while the experienced Akashdeep Singh saved India by scoring twice after Wales made it 22 at the end of the third quarterIn the absence of Hardik the performance of senior players like Mandeep Singh and Akashdeep will be key for the hostsIndia no doubt would start as favourites against New Zealand but the Black Sticks will not be an easy side to beatIndia had beaten them twice 43 and 74 in OctoberNovember last year during the FIH Pro League at the same stadium here but New Zealand are no pushovers in world hockeyAlso Read Hockey World Cup 2023 Wales done but not well doneMandeep hit on kneeMeanwhile forward Mandeep was hit on his knee during team training on Saturday and left with the team physio He did not take further part in the trainingAsked about this at the prematch press conference coach Graham Reid simply said ldquoYou will find it outrdquoHistorically the two sides had played 44 matches against each other and India had won 24 of them while losing 15 Five games were drawn The last time New Zealand beat India was a 21 win in 2019New Zealand would be smarting after their 23 loss to Malaysia in their final Pool lsquoCrsquo match on Thursday They had beaten tournament debutants Chile 31 in their opening game before expectedly losing to The Netherlands 04New Zealand have some genuinely world class players in their ranks and the Indians will have to play their bestDefender Blair Tarrant defensive midfielder Nick Ross and veteran striker Simon Child are New Zealandrsquos key players130No of goals scored in the ongoing edition of hockey World Cup from 24 games at an average of 541 goals per matchThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever